Universal medical diagnostic system

Abstract

A method for controlling operations of a computer system for providing medical diagnoses, comprises diagnosing a patient, wherein the diagnosing comprises receiving a patient identification of the patient; receiving electronic data indicating the geographic location of the computer system; receiving the patient's chief complaint and interview data; receiving electronic data indicating one or more current body characteristics of the patient comprising at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition; creating a current multimedia representation for each of the one or more current body characteristics determined by using the one or more sensors; identifying, in the computer system, previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers; comparing the current multimedia representation to the previous multimedia representations; and identifying potential matches with corresponding confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for controlling operations of a computer system for providing medical diagnoses, comprising:
 diagnosing a patient, wherein the diagnosing comprises:
 receiving a patient identification of the patient; 
 receiving electronic data indicating the geographic location of the computer system; 
 receiving the patient's chief complaint and interview data; 
 receiving electronic data indicating one or more current body characteristics of the patient comprising at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition; 
 creating a current multimedia representation for each of the one or more current body characteristics determined by using the one or more sensors; 
 identifying, in the computer system, previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers; 
 comparing the current multimedia representation to the previous multimedia representations; 
 identifying potential matches with corresponding confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards; 
 using one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines of the computer system with diagnostic templates for a set of known illnesses, maladies, diseases, infections, conditions or traumas along with their associated data, signs and symptoms based in part upon geographic location and the patient's chief complaint to select a diagnosis and a diagnosis confidence factor for the patient based on comparing the current multimedia representation to a previous number of multimedia representations derived from previous patients of each of one or more body characteristics in accordance with defined medical standards; 
   determining that the diagnosis is of highest probability of being the correct diagnosis, using a computerized trained arbitrator, from the one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines of the computer system, in accordance with defined medical standards and in response to the diagnosis confidence factor of the diagnosis exceeding a confidence factor threshold;   in response to the diagnosis confidence factor not exceeding the confidence factor threshold, selecting a different current body characteristic of the patient to determine to increase the diagnosis confidence factor, wherein selection of the different body characteristic is based on the one or more current body characteristics of the patient previously determined and based on an order of selection in order to exceed the high confidence factor threshold with a minimum number of additional selections of different body characteristics; and   in response to the diagnosis confidence factor exceeding the confidence factor threshold, selecting the diagnosis as the diagnosis for the patient; and   selecting a treatment based on the diagnosis.   
     
     
         2 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises using multiple differently tuned trained classifiers to optimize the recognition of multimedia patient data sources with corresponding diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards. 
     
     
         3 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises using multiple trained diagnostic engines that use diagnostic templates created in accordance with defined medical standards, and
 creating the diagnosis confidence factors based on the diagnostic templates.   
     
     
         4 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises associating patient's pulse waveform recognition with diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards. 
     
     
         5 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises downloading remote patient data from at least one of a local server and a remote server based on an identification of the patient, and wherein selecting the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the diagnosis is based at least in part on the remote patient data. 
     
     
         6 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises: retrieving historical data of the patient that comprises past body characteristics of the patient that were determined at a prior time, wherein the past body characteristics of the patient comprises at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition, and
 wherein selecting the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the patient is based at least in part on the historical data of the patient.   
     
     
         7 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein diagnosing the patient comprises:
 determining whether an illness, malady, disease, infection, allergic reaction or condition of the patient corresponds to one or more known side effects of or interaction with one or more current medications of the patient.   
     
     
         8 . One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the instructions comprising:
 instructions to diagnose a patient, wherein the instructions to diagnose comprises,
 instructions to receive electronic data indicating the geographic location of the computer system; 
 instructions to receive a patient identification of the patient; 
 instructions to receive the patient's chief complaint and interview data; 
 instructions to perform the following instructions until determining that the diagnosis is of highest probability of being the correct diagnosis,
 instructions to determine, using one or more body measurement sensors, one or more current body characteristics of the patient comprising at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition; 
 instructions to create a current multimedia representation for each of the one or more current body characteristics determined by using the one or more body measurement sensors; 
 instructions to identify previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers; 
 instructions to compare the current multimedia representation to previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers; 
 instructions to identify potential matches with corresponding confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards; 
 instructions to use one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines with electronic diagnostic templates of the computer system for a set of known illnesses, maladies, diseases, infections, conditions or traumas along with their associated data, signs and symptoms to select a diagnosis and a diagnosis confidence factor for the patient based on comparing the current multimedia representation to a previous number of multimedia representations derived from previous patients of each of one or more body characteristics in accordance with defined medical standards; 
 instructions to determine that the diagnosis is of highest probability of being the correct diagnosis, using a computerized trained arbitrator of the computer system, from the one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines in accordance with defined medical standards and in response to the diagnosis confidence factor of the diagnosis exceeding a confidence factor threshold; 
 in response to the diagnosis confidence factor not exceeding the confidence factor threshold, instructions to select a different body characteristic of the patient to determine to increase the diagnosis confidence factor, wherein selection of the different body characteristic is based on the one or more current body characteristics of the patient previously determined and based on an order of selection in order to exceed the high confidence factor threshold with a minimum number of additional selections of different body characteristics, and; 
 in response to the diagnosis confidence factor exceeding the confidence factor threshold, instructions to select the diagnosis as the diagnosis for the patient; and 
 instructions to select a treatment based upon the diagnosis. 
 
   
     
     
         9 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise instructions to use multiple differently tuned trained classifiers to optimize the recognition of multimedia patient data sources with corresponding diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards. 
     
     
         10 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise:
 instructions to use multiple trained diagnostic engines that use diagnostic templates created in accordance with defined medical standards; and   instructions to create the diagnosis confidence factors based on the diagnostic templates.   
     
     
         11 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise instructions to associate pulse waveform recognition with diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards. 
     
     
         12 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise instructions to download remote patient data from at least one of a local server and a remote server based on an identification of the patient, and wherein the instructions to select the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the diagnosis is based at least in part on the remote patient data. 
     
     
         13 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise:
 instructions to retrieve historical data of the patient that comprises past body characteristics of the patient that were determined at a prior time, wherein the past body characteristics of the patient comprises at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition, and   wherein the instructions to select the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the patient is based at least in part on the historical data of the patient.   
     
     
         14 . The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the instructions to diagnose the patient comprise:
 instructions to determine whether an illness, malady, disease, infection or condition of the patient corresponds to one or more known side effects of or interaction with one or more current medications of the patient.   
     
     
         15 . An apparatus for controlling operations of a computer system for providing medical diagnoses, comprising:
 a processor; and   a machine-readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to,
 diagnose a patient, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
 receive electronic data indicating the geographic location of the computer system; 
 receive a patient identification of the patient; 
 receive the patient's chief complaint and interview data; 
 perform the following operations until determining that the diagnosis is of highest probability of being the correct diagnosis, 
 determine, using one or more body measurement sensors, one or more current body characteristics of the patient comprising at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition; 
 create, in the computer system, a current multimedia representation for each of the one or more current body characteristics determined by using the one or more body measurement sensors; 
 identify, in the computer system, previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers based in part upon the geographic location and the patient's Chief Complaint; 
 compare the current multimedia representation to the previous multimedia representations of each of the one or more body characteristics from other persons using one or more trained classifiers; 
 identify potential matches with corresponding confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards; 
 use one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines of the computer system with electronic diagnostic templates for a set of known illnesses, maladies, diseases, infections, conditions or traumas along with their associated data, signs and symptoms to select a diagnosis and a diagnosis confidence factor for the patient based on comparing the current multimedia representation to a previous number of multimedia representations derived from previous patients of each of one or more body characteristics in accordance with defined medical standards; 
 determine that the diagnosis is of highest probability of being the correct diagnosis, using a computerized trained arbitrator, from the one or more computerized trained diagnostic engines in accordance with defined medical standards and in response to the diagnosis confidence factor of the diagnosis exceeding a confidence factor threshold; 
 
 in response to the diagnosis confidence factor not exceeding the confidence factor threshold, select a different body characteristic of the patient to determine to increase the diagnosis confidence factor, wherein selection of the different body characteristic is based on the one or more current body characteristics of the patient previously determined and based on an order of selection in order to exceed the high confidence factor threshold with a minimum number of additional selections of different body characteristics, and; 
   in response to the diagnosis confidence factor exceeding the confidence factor threshold,   select the diagnosis as the diagnosis for the patient; and   select a treatment based upon the diagnosis.   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
 use multiple differently tuned trained classifiers to optimize the recognition of multimedia patient data sources with corresponding diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards.   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
 use multiple trained diagnostic engines that use diagnostic templates created in accordance with defined medical standards, and   create the diagnosis confidence factors based on the diagnostic templates.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to associate pulse waveform recognition with diagnosis confidence factors in accordance with defined medical standards. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to download remote patient data from at least one of a local server and a remote server based on an identification of the patient, and wherein the instructions to executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to select the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the diagnosis is based at least in part on the remote patient data. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to diagnose comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
 retrieve historical data of the patient that comprises past body characteristics of the patient that were determined at a prior time, wherein the past body characteristics of the patient comprises at least one of pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and skin condition, and   wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to select the diagnosis and the diagnosis confidence factor for the patient is based at least in part on the historical data of the patient.